structure on paper

Bauhaus
Dessau, Germany

Introduction

Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 as a union of the Grand Ducal College of Visual Art and the Grand Ducal Arts and Crafts School in the city of Weimar, Germany. It was governed by a social-democratic council in that period. However, conservative forces compelled the Bauhaus to leave Weimar and move to Dessau, Germany in 1925. Therefore, Walter Gropius has planned a complex of new buildings in Dessau.

The Fact

Bauhaus is a design institution in the city of Dessau. It was begun in autumn 1925 and completed in December 1926. It was designed by the school founder Walter Gropius in 1925. The building covers a ground area of 113,400 sq ft and contains approximately 250,600sq ft of floor space. The building was to serve as training center, workshop, and residence. It functions was of paramount significance in Gropius’s design where he approached them by using elements from his modular “Baukasten” system. Basically, the whole complex consists of three wings, the school and workshop connected via the studio, which is a two-story bridge on four columns that spans the road.

The Contextual Condition and Issues Raised
In 1925 after “Das Staatliche Bauhaus” had been forced to close for political reasons in Weimar, the city of Dessau became the second official home of the Bauhaus. It was accused due to neglect of German cultural values and encouraging Jewish influence amongst its teachers and students. After moved to Dessau, it was designated as a High School for Design and given university status. The move to Dessau from the old German city proved challenging and traumatic. Gropius was forced to grow the political resentment in the city towards the Bauhaus and to increase the international and “foreign” character.
Besides that, Bauhaus had a “first open Exhibition and Lecture week” which it was to appeal to the world to save the institution from closure. After move to Dessau, Bauhaus was

References: 1. Gropius, Walter, “ Bauhaus, Dessau” Phaidon Press Limited, 1993 2. Curtis, William J. R, “ Modern Architecture Since 1900” 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 1982 3. While the suspended curtain walls to the collectively used workshop tract deliberately mask any indication of the story divisions, in the adjoining sections of the complex, the lines of the floors are given prominence. The horizontal dynamics of the low-rise blocks are echoed by the dark-framed strips of fenestration set in the pale façades. The studio building to the rear of the development represents the only vertical note. Sixteen separate balconies on its west face indicate the individual students’ apartments within and provide them with light, fresh air, and sunshine. The balconies project like springboards from the wall of the snow-white tower block and cast a lively pattern of changing shadows over the taut, sail-like façade. Together with the balustrade railings, they evoke an image of natural architecture---of an ocean liner beached in the middle of Dessau. } icon archi book Spatial layout Bauhaus building has a basic form and functional layout. It indicates a complex of loosely connected buildings spread out, spatially, on the site. Service functions were to one side with access for the supply of coal to the bunkers and to the sports field. Asymmetrically placed were the twin entrances. They faced each other across the well-defined roadway, the bridge over which clearly differentiated their separate functions. On the Bauhaus side a ‘form of living’ with educational, work, social and living functions grouped together, was also achieved. -There is a five-storey studio block with an auditorium and canteen were located in the first floor. This created a hub for the whole building with an area that could be opened up in order to create a large interconnected, communal, performance and exhibition space. ‘Miniature world of the Bauhaus’ has been named by uniting work, living, eating, parties and theatrical performance. -